In this conference talk, Brenna O'Brien discusses what she loves most about JavaScript, the community. She covers why it's important to remember what it was like to start out in the community and channel that empathy into the resources we provide online, i.e. code examples without arbitrary jargon like "foo" and "bar". One of the best points to follow is removing condescending language, like "simply" and "just", while teaching others.

For the closing keynote of JSConfEu 2015, Carina C. Zona shows us the algorithms and artificial intelligence systems being designed at massive companies like Google, Flickr, Facebook, and Apple can backfire when they forget about the edge cases and lack empathy for all of the end users. A particularly interesting section covers racial bias passed down from the development of color photography into the calibration of digital cameras and screens.

This video was shared in several talks during WhatTheFest Berlin and is a fantastic intro for anyone researching empathy. The use of animation to make the subject more approachable and informative is very well done. It dives straight into the core of empathy as a means for connecting with others and pushing away judgement in an effort to understand.

One of my favorite things to take away from this article is "communicate - not guess". After going in-depth about specific methods and tips for more effective communication with designers, it's easy to see how these same suggestions can be applied to more effective communication with coworkers in general. Remaining constructive and always moving the discussion forward will keep the entire project productive.

Overwhelmingly, empathy is a skill. We have to practice it; it’s a choice.

We need to start feeling empathy for these teams and treating their work as valid — as valid as engineering work. For instance, in the case of Sales, often they’ll have a quota they have to hit, else they literally lose their jobs. It’s an incredibly high-stakes profession. As engineers, we won’t be fired for building fewer features; in fact, we’ll probably be promoted if we manage to simplify the feature-set.

This article is extensive and thorough in covering the various methods of applying empathy for customers, coworkers, and ourselves. Bonus points for the wonderful use of gifs.